Nitrite gives a signal; Seeing a zebrafish's beating heart

NATURE AND THE NATURE RESEARCH JOURNALS PRESS RELEASE

NATURE AND THE NATURE RESEARCH JOURNALS PRESS RELEASE

For papers that will be published online on 18 September 2005

Nitrite gives a signal - Nature Chemical Biology
Seeing a zebrafish's beating heart - Nature Chemical Biology

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********************NATURE CHEMICAL BIOLOGY**************************
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[1] Nitrite gives a signal

DOI: 10.1038/nchembio734

Should you eat another hot dog? A paper in the September issue of Nature
Chemical Biology reports that nitrite-a common additive in foods such as hot
dogs-is a built-in signaling molecule that regulates multiple biochemical
pathways. The high levels of nitrite resulting from its addition to food
have been considered dangerous because they could cause low blood pressure
and lead to the production of carcinogenic compounds. Although these high
nitrite concentrations have the potential to cause harmful effects to our
health, low levels of nitrite have been considered physiologically inert.
Recent research however, has suggested that low levels of nitrite could
influence physiological processes such as vasodilation - the dilation of
blood vessels.
Martin Feelisch and colleagues have now examined the specific
biochemical response to nitrite and shown that levels of protein
nitrosylation and nitrosation (the addition of nitric oxide to different
positions in proteins) are directly correlated with in vivo nitrite levels.
These protein modifications lead to changes in multiple biochemical
signaling pathways and gene transcription in vivo. Mechanistic evidence has
further suggested that nitrite may be able to modify proteins directly,
rather than going through nitric oxide, a well-established signaling
molecule.
The team's results uncover new avenues for mechanistic exploration
of the physiological roles of nitrite and could have important implications
for dietary guidelines for nitrite-containing foods.

Author contact:
Martin Feelisch (Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA)
Tel: +1 617 414 8150, E-mail: [email protected]

[2] Seeing a zebrafish's beating heart

DOI: 10.1038/nchembio732

The first high-throughput analysis for organ function in a living vertebrate
is reported in the September issue of Nature Chemical Biology. Monitoring
organ function in living organisms provides a powerful method for monitoring
the effects of potential drugs in vivo. However, automating a
high-throughput screen for organ function has been challenging due to the
necessity of evaluating the effects of the drugs on individual organisms.
C. Geoffrey Burns and colleagues have developed an automated
fluorescence microscopy assay for monitoring the beating heart of a
zebrafish. In zebrafish embryos, they labeled the myocardium-the heart's
muscular wall-with a green fluorescent tag. Using this transgenic
zebrafish, they accurately measured heart rates over a large range of
heartbeats per minute. With this method, Burns and colleagues were able to
monitor the response of zebrafish to drugs known to affect heart rate, such
as tamoxifen.
This research will be an important new tool for developing drugs for
heart disease. In addition, the extension of this approach to other
physiological parameters will open up new doors for whole-organism
phenotype-based screening.

Author contact:
C. Geoffrey Burns (Massachusetts General Hospital, Cardiovascular Research
Center, Charlestown, MA, USA)
Tel: +1 617 726 6470, E-mail: [email protected]

Other papers from Nature Chemical Biology to be published online at the same
time and with the same embargo:

[3] Neuronal synapse interaction reconstituted between live cells and
supported lipid bilayers
DOI: 10.1038/nchembio737

***************************************************************************

Items from other Nature journals to be published online at the same time and
with the same embargo:

Nature (<http://www.nature.com/nature>)

[4] Regulated cell-to-cell variation in a cell-fate decision system
DOI: 10.1038/nature03998

NATURE MATERIALS (<http://www.nature.com/naturematerials>)

[5] Domain switching in polycrystalline ferroelectric ceramics
DOI: 10.1038/nmat1485

Nature MEDICINE (<http://www.nature.com/naturemedicine>)

[6] Tumor-targeted, systemic delivery of therapeutic viral vectors using
hitchhiking on antigen-specific T cells
DOI: 10.1038/nm1297

[7] Loss of function of a lupus-associated FcgammaRIIb polymorphism through
exclusion from lipid rafts
DOI: 10.1038/nm1288

[8] Amelioration of inflammatory arthritis by targeting the pre-ligand
assembly domain of tumor necrosis factor receptors
DOI: 10.1038/nm1304

Nature BIOTECHNOLOGY (http://www.nature.com/naturebiotechnolgy)

[9] Multiplexed electrical detection of cancer markers with nanowire sensor
arrays
DOI: 10.1038/nbt1138

[10] Generation of functional ion channel tools by E3 targeting
DOI: 10.1038/nbt1148

NATURE GENETICS (<http://www.nature.com/naturegenetics>)

[11] Germline mutations in HRAS proto-oncogene cause Costello syndrome
DOI: 10.1038/ng1641

[12] Lymphatic vascular defects promoted by Prox1 haploinsufficiency cause
adult-onset obesity
DOI: 10.1038/ng1642

[13] Pathogen-induced, NADPH oxidase-derived reactive oxygen intermediates
suppress spread of cell death in Arabidopsis thaliana
DOI: 10.1038/ng1639

[14] Disruption of Bardet-Biedl syndrome ciliary proteins perturbs planar
cell polarity in vertebrates
DOI: 10.1038/ng1644

Nature NEUROSCIENCE (<http://www.nature.com/natureneuroscience>)

[15] Changes in synaptic structure underlie the developmental speeding of
AMPA receptor-mediated EPSCs
DOI: 10.1038/nn1534

[16] Regulation of aversion to noxious food by Drosophila neuropeptide Y-
and insulin-like systems
DOI: 10.1038/nn1540

[17] SFRP1 regulates the growth of retinal ganglion cell axons through the
Fz2 receptor
DOI: 10.1038/nn1547

[18] Topographic mapping of VMH?arcuate nucleus microcircuits and their
reorganization by fasting
DOI: 10.1038/nn1550

[19] Why pictures look right when viewed from the wrong place
DOI: 10.1038/nn1553

Nature IMMUNOLOGY (<http://www.nature.com/natureimmunology>)

[20] Role of caspase-cleaved and intact adaptor protein 1 complex during
endosomal remodeling in maturing dendritic cells
DOI: 10.1038/ni1250

[21] Chemokine receptor CXCR4-dependent internalization and resecretion of
functional chemokine SDF-1 by bone marrow endothelial and stromal cells
DOI: 10.1038/ni1251

NATURE CELL BIOLOGY (<http://www.nature.com/naturecellbiology>)

[22] Ubx2 links the Cdc48 complex to ER-associated protein degradation
DOI: 10.1038/ncb1298

[23] Membrane-bound Ubx2 recruits Cdc48 to ubiquitin ligases and their
substrates to ensure efficient ER-associated protein degradation
DOI: 10.1038/ncb1299

[24] The endoplasmic reticulum gateway to apoptosis by Bcl-XL modulation of
the InsP3R
DOI: 10.1038/ncb1302

[25] The extracellular matrix guides the orientation of the cell division
axis
DOI: 10.1038/ncb1307

Nature STRUCTURAL & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
(<http://www.nature.com/natstructmolbiol>)

[26] The exon junction core complex is locked onto RNA by inhibition of
eIF4AIII ATPase activity
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb990

[27] The C-type lectin fold as an evolutionary solution for massive sequence
variation
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb992

****************************************************************************

GEOGRAPHICAL LISTING OF AUTHORS

The following list of places refers to the whereabouts of authors on the
papers numbered in this release. The listing may be for an author's main
affiliation, or for a place where they are working temporarily. Please see
the PDF of the paper for full details.

AUSTRIA
Vienna: 21

CANADA
Burnaby: 14
Toronto: 27

CHINA
Wuhan: 10

FRANCE
Toulouse: 17
Marcoussis: 25
Gif-sur-Yvette: 26
Strasbourg: 14, 26
Paris: 15, 20, 25

GERMANY
Berlin: 22
Dusseldorf: 1
Heidelberg: 2
Martinsried near Munich: 23

HUNGARY
Budapest: 15

ISRAEL
Jerusalem: 21
Rehevot: 21
Tel Hashomer: 21

ITALY
Genoa: 11

JAPAN
Nagano: 11
Saitama: 11
Sendai: 11
Yokohama: 11

SPAIN
Madrid: 17

UNITED KINGDOM
Cambridge: 7, 17
Colney: 13
Fife: 27
Harwell: 14
Leeds: 6, 10
London: 7, 10, 14, 15
Oxford: 10

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Arizona
Tucson: 12
California
Berkeley: 3, 4, 19
La Jolla: 27
Los Angeles: 27
Pasadena: 5
San Francisco: 27
Georgia
Athens: 16
Iowa
Ames: 5
Louisiana
Shreveport: 1
Maryland
Baltimore: 14
Bethesda: 8
Massachusetts
Boston: 1, 2, 20
Cambridge: 2, 4, 9, 20
Charlestown: 2
Worcester: 8
Minnesota
Rochester: 6
Nebraska
Lincoln: 5
New York
Tarrytown: 12
Cold Spring Harbor: 18
New York: 18, 20, 22
North Carolina
Chapel Hill: 13
Pennsylvania
Philadelphia: 24
St. Davids: 27
Tennessee
Memphis: 12
Texas
Houston: 14

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Published: 18 Sep 2005

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